Up the Rassies!
Laois beat Wexford in a turgid affair in OâMoore Park for the right to be pummelled by Dublin the next day out. Overshadowed by the news of a tragic accident earlier in the day involving a young teenager close to a member of the Laois extended panel. Life is fragile.
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The Roscommon lad gave an excellent interview there. Good as youâd hear in any sport.
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Intelligence
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Delighted for my great pal Davy Burke.
This ambush was plotted in Devitts of Camden Street a couple of weeks back.
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Whatâs this?
Iâd say they will give it a good rattle. Donegal in Newry first day out, bookies outsiders but Iâd have them favourites. Then itâs Cavan or Armagh in a Ulster semi, neither an insurmountable obstacle.
The reality is in Ulster the competition is fairly ordinary - if a team is reasonably organised and committed they will do well. Laverty has them organised by packing the side with Kilcoo fellas, even Genie is now gracing us with his presence. A great u20 win against Tyrone a couple of weeks back and a big win last day out in the league against Offaly suggests the commitment is there as well, only negative is the loss of OâHagan to a bad injury who is our best forward by a long way. In summary, yes Down will make the Ulster final.
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God rest the young man, a promising young hurler in his own right. Life is very very fragile.
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David Brown, RIP.
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The new groups have taken the importance out of the provincial championships for Div 1 teams. The seedings donât really matter when 3 from 4 escape.
It would typical of poor Clare to have beaten Cork and then lose to Limerick the next day. Tipp almost came a cropper against Limerick in their Munster winning year.
This current system is Box Office for the lower or mid-table Div 2 teams and higher end Div 3 teams as they sweat on permutations like Stephen Kennyâs Ireland and the Euro play-offs.
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Take it to the LOI thread
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It is now guaranteed that at least one of Meath, Kildare or Cork will be demoted to the Tall Tales Cup this year.
Thatâs BOX OFFICE in one way, but championship is not supposed to be about permutations, itâs not supposed to be about reliance on others, itâs supposed to be about personal responsibility, itâs supposed to be Darwinian. But itâs also supposed to be about BIRTHRIGHT, and status, and arrogance and lazy cultural ossification.
Meath, Cork and Kildare are ENTITLED FOOTBALL COUNTIES. When all three have been eliminated and Limerick, New York, Westmeath, Cavan and Longford take their places, there will be an outcry.
Meath, Kildare and Cork will claim that they had secured their Division 2 status and thus were led to believe that they were SAFE, like Manchester City when the crowd at Maine Road celebrated a fake goal at another ground in 1996. That they were relegated under false pretences.
âWhat is this system doing for football in Meath, Kildare and Cork?â we will be asked, in the traditional style associated with laments for Offaly hurling.
And we as a public will be here for that outcry, as they say on the INTERNET.
This will lead to a further restructuring of the championship along the lines of the future Champions League, where teams which have won at least four All-Irelands are guaranteed entry to the big cup. âThe birthright clauseâ.
Then, in a few years time, Mayo will fail to qualify. And because Mayo only have three All-Ireland titles, they will not qualify for the birthright clause. And Mayo people will ask âwhat is this system doing for football in Mayo?â
And then Offaly will jump on that bandwagon, because they have three All-Irelands too.
And then Donegal and Roscommon, with two All-Irelands, will, say, âweâre a PROPER FOOTBALL COUNTY too, you have to extend the birthright clause to us.â
And then Derry and Armagh, with one All-Ireland each, will say âbut weâre a proper football countyâ, we are ENTITLED to be in the big cup."
And itâll end up with the big cup being six groups of four instead of four groups of four, and the Thomas the Tank Engine Cup will go down to eight teams.
This WILL happen.
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I didnât realise Alan Campbell was playing for New York on Saturday. Heâs making some memories that lad, from wearing the famous number 2 commemorative shirt of Michael Hogan in Tipperarys famous Munster final win, and now this. From good Laois stock and all.
Or it could just mean that the league and tailteann cup will be properly contested and will really mean something. I thought the new system was absolutely ridiculous when I first heard about it but now that I see it in action itâs genius. If teams actually start taking the tailteann cup seriously like teams take lower divisions in soccer seriously or intermediate club championships it could be the saviour of the whole gaa at inter county level
Spoiler: It wont.
Nobody attends Joe McDonagh Cup games.
Armagh v Antrim was not an Ulster championship game, it was a bloodless charade where both teams were role playing like David Brent pretending to be a hotel manager.
I donât even yet know who won between Wicklow and Carlow and Offaly and Longford. I think both of these games were on yesterday? Meanwhile Cork, who thought they were safe, might well be out of the football championship on April 9th on a false pretence in a game that pretty much nobody in Cork bar the players themselves knew was taking place.
All of this is filler played in the cold and the rain of spring which people do not want to attend. Liverpool v Arsenal was an infinitely more attractive offering than anything the GAA could offer yesterday.
The problem is you get too many games and all of them have shit attendances, which destroys the product. Before, teams and general supporters in counties knew what they had to aim at. May 24th in Thurles or June 15th in Croke Park or May 29th in Celtic Park or whatever. There was no confusion about what mattered. Now there is.
But thereâs also a problem where even if the âon the dayâ nature of the championship is taken away, the culture of âon the dayâ does not go away, either among teams themselves or among spectators. Mayo did not care about yesterdayâs game. The âon the dayâ for Mayo and the Mayo public is knockout, which means either the last 12 or the last 8.
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Thatâs some absolute scutter
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Snob !!